Extraordinary Pedigree.

Chapter 688: The Gospel Machine and the Night Boat
11: 00 AM
The second level of heaven, Yetsra.

This is the "world of formation" where the light of the Supreme is revealed through angels and spiritual entities, as a realm where illusion and reality are intertwined.

This mysterious world is surrounded by mountains, and deep inside it lies the core base of the Heavenly Alchemy Engineering Department - [Essex Fortress].

A blond young man wearing a long-sleeved sweatshirt, fitted cropped trousers and white canvas shoes was walking among the mountains. His figure was light and swift, with "∞" symbols under his feet. Whenever a symbol appeared, he would appear at another displacement point as if shrinking into an inch. Soon, he appeared at the entrance of the fortress.

The fortress stands between towering mountains, with the projection of the [Clock of Doomsday] suspended in the sky. The huge clock face is clearly visible. No matter where you stand in [Yezla], you can look up and see this huge clock that symbolizes the end of time. The silently flowing pointer reminds every angel that the end of the world is not far away.

Xia Xiu came to the core area of ​​the Alchemy Engineering Department - the Fortress Dock. This huge industrial building was like a silent steel behemoth.

Soaring towers and complex mechanical devices are spread across every corner of the dock. The huge dome extends to the end of the sight. The entire space is shrouded in a cold and hard metallic luster, full of a mysterious sense of technology.

In the center of the dock, the Holy Machine of Gospel stands like a steel giant. Its body is 101 meters high and weighs 7 tons, like a giant.

The huge figure seemed to have merged with the entire dock. The huge mecha completely occupied the central maintenance platform. Dozens of thick support arms stretched out from various parts of the dock, firmly fixing its joints and main structure, ensuring that every part of this behemoth could be accurately maintained and repaired.

The outer armor of the machine exposed part of its internal structure during the repair process, and the glowing energy pipes were vaguely visible, like pulsating blood vessels flowing with some mysterious power.

The silver-gray nano-titanium alloy surface is covered with fine mechanical interfaces and power nodes. Every detail demonstrates the amazing complexity and precision of this giant war machine.

The engineers around were wearing special work clothes with the Heavenly Alchemy logo printed on them. They were hanging on multi-arm maintenance devices, like a group of worker ants climbing a giant mountain of steel.

Everyone was careful and focused on the task in hand, adjusting and checking various parts of the machine.

The sounds of robotic arms and tools echoed in the dock, and the sound of metal colliding had a cold and orderly rhythm.

thump—

thump—

thump—

Xia Xiu stood at the entrance of the dock, his hands casually shoved in the pockets of his sweatshirt, his eyes wandering across the huge scene.

The entire dock operates like a huge and sophisticated machine, running in an orderly manner.

The towering maintenance mechanical arms coiled around the Holy Gospel Machine like flexible snakes. Various repair tools were equipped at the ends of them, and low humming sounds came one after another.

The blue arcs of the plasma welder jumped across the surface of the aircraft like a small thunderstorm, quickly melting and recasting the nano-titanium alloy armor torn by the night ship's beam.

The high-temperature spray device nearby emitted a slight hissing sound and sprayed out an extremely thin layer of protective coating, covering the repaired armor and restoring its smoothness and strength.

Under the light, the armor once again emitted a shiny metallic luster.

An old man wearing an engineering hat was loudly scolding his maintenance angels through the virtual call screen.

The commander-in-chief had obvious dark circles under his eyes. Time had left deep marks on his face, but his eyes were still sharp and he looked extremely sophisticated.

Every time he gave an order, everything around him became tense.

"Pay attention! Pay attention to the angle of welding, and don't create any messy gaps!" His rough voice echoed throughout the dock through the public address system, and his tone was full of unquestionable severity.

"Don't rush to finish the spraying over there. Wait until the temperature rises a little bit to completely seal the crack. Have you forgotten the melting point of this alloy? Who issued you the alchemy operation certificate? When you were in Nursery College and taking alchemy engineering classes, did you sleep all the time? Hurry up and adjust the data again, don't leave any trouble for me!"

"If you can't even do this welding, don't even mention Heavenly Alchemy Engineer to me!"

"Steel does not forgive laziness."

"This machine doesn't exist for you to make mistakes. Every error will be magnified a hundred times on the battlefield. Remember that!"

The director on the screen was so angry that he almost jumped up. He pointed at the technician who was monitoring the data next to him with one hand and slammed the console with the other hand, as if he could feel that every tiny error was pulling at his nerves.

The engineering hat was tilted on his head, making him look a little funny, but no one dared to laugh. Everyone worked desperately to speed up under his roar.

Behind him, a giant crane was operating silently, making a clacking sound of gears. Pieces of newly forged nano-titanium alloy composite armor plates were slowly lifted up and sent to the damaged parts of the Gospel Holy Machine.

These armor plates are 5 meters thick and as hard as iron. After several high-voltage tests and energy injection treatments, they can withstand the high-intensity impact in the next battle.

The crane arm accurately places the armor plates in the designated position, and the robotic arm then unfolds to secure them firmly.

The maintenance angels were hanging on the aerial work platform, busy operating the tools with their hands, precisely adjusting the fixed position of the armor plates.

At the same time, at the bottom of the Holy Gospel Machine, the core reactor of the propulsion system was exposed, with a large number of maintenance machinery and energy pipelines suspended around it.

The repair team was busy replacing the damaged propulsion core. The huge energy cables emitted a low-frequency vibration sound, and particle energy flowed from the central energy depot of the dock to the internal pipes of the Gospel Holy Machine.

The thruster's reactor gradually started up, and a blue light flickered faintly at the thrust port, indicating the flow of energy after the system was reconnected to the power supply.

"Report the progress of the propulsion system over there to me!"

The commander roared again, staring at the faintly flickering blue light of the thrusters, his eyes wide open.

"What are you doing? I'm talking about replacement! Don't do half-hearted operations! The data fluctuation during the thruster activation cannot exceed 1%! If there is a one percentage point error, the entire Gospel Holy Machine will explode into photon dust during the jump, and the Fourth Sword Bearer of the Kingdom of Heaven will be directly reduced to slag!!!"

"My God! If you guys could understand one percent of particle effects, you wouldn't be reading those damn data tables in front of me all day."

"The thrusters are in place, the system is running stably, and we are ready for the next test." A technician reported quickly.

The commander nodded, his expression still stern. Although there was a hint of satisfaction, his expression was still tense, like an impregnable fortress that never allowed any omissions.

The busyness continued in the dock, with huge robotic arms moving flexibly around the Holy Gospel Machine, coordinating seamlessly with the workers' movements.

The sound of metal colliding and the blue arcs of plasma welding dancing on the surface of the Holy Machine of Gospel indicate that this behemoth is slowly recovering from a serious injury.

Xia Xiu, standing at the entrance of the dock, was still watching all this calmly. However, the commander-in-chief's sharp eyes suddenly swept over the fourth sword-bearer of the Kingdom of Heaven who did not conceal his aura.

Xia Xiu's eyes fell on the old man who was over seventy years old - an old engineer who had devoted his life to alchemy engineering.

His forehead was full of wrinkles, and his eyes showed an unyielding tenacity. The dark circles under his eyes were particularly conspicuous, like the marks left by years of sleepless nights.

The mottled engineering hat had obviously gone through countless years of use, and the brim had become worn and white.

He was wearing a greasy work jacket that he had obviously never taken off. The cuffs and lapels were stained with dried oil and metal shavings, as if it had merged into this steel fortress.

Xia Xiu's gaze fell on the dark circles under his eyes and he froze slightly.

The social animal radar told him that this was his kind - the kind who worked all night without distraction.

Thinking about the other party's attitude and feelings towards the Holy Machine of Gospel, and then thinking about how I made the Holy Machine of Gospel look like this...

Thinking of this, Xia Xiu couldn't help but smile awkwardly, and that slightly awkward smile silently revealed a hint of apology.

The commander seemed to have noticed Xia Xiu's smile, but did not show much emotion.

He walked steadily and unhurriedly to Xia Xiu's side, raised his head slightly, and looked at the young fourth sword-bearer of the Kingdom of Heaven.

"Alex Seversky," the old man said, his voice hoarse and steady, with the frost of time, "General Manager of the Holy Machine of Gospel, Chief Engineering Officer of the Alchemy Engineering Department."

Xia Xiu nodded, then reached out and held the other person's oily hand.

The palm was rough and powerful, with the cold feeling of metal and the stickiness of oil, but Xia Xiu did not hesitate at all and responded seriously:
"Hugh Abraham. The decision-maker of the Resolution Assembly, the fourth sword bearer of the Kingdom of Heaven, the executor of the Fire Stealing Plan, and the pilot of the Holy Machine of Gospel."

The two men clenched their hands briefly in the air, then released them, but the silent atmosphere conveyed a subtle consensus.

The commander-in-chief looked at Xia Xiu calmly, his expression as serious as ever, but his deep eyes revealed some complex considerations, as if he was evaluating the young swordsman.

Xia Xiu turned around and looked at the Gospel Holy Machine that was being repaired in front of him, his eyes slightly thoughtful, and his thoughts began to be closely connected with it.

At this moment, Xia Xiu connected to [Adam] through his consciousness and quickly read and checked the maintenance log of the engineering department.

Those complex data and progress bars quickly flowed through his mind, and every detail was presented accurately.

————[Maintenance Log]————

Date: [1591-01-28] Battle damage assessment completed, damage to main drive core confirmed, entering repair process.

Date:[1591-01-29] GN粒子储量补充程序启动，预计24小时内恢复至90%。

Date:[1591-01-29] The defense barrier system has been repaired and the electromagnetic coil has been replaced and debugged successfully.

Date:[1591-01-30] EVE Energy Storage Pool restored to 20% capacity.

Date: [1591-01-30] Phase shift armor replacement completed, armor plates reforged and reinforced.

Date: [1591-01-30] The internal core has been regularly calibrated and the secondary drive system has been repaired to 30%.

…………

Estimated maintenance time: 242:10:20
----------

"It's a little longer than I thought." Xia Xiu looked at the maintenance log and muttered to himself.

At the same time, he started chatting with the governor Alex:
"Honestly speaking, the work of the engineering department is really hard, especially for a machine as complex as the Holy Gospel Machine. The repair work is not simple at all. The original skeleton of this machine was recovered from the hands of the Gear Orthodox Church. The situation was chaotic underground at that time. When this long-silent statue was just revived, even after sleeping for many epochs, the machine soul still had a very terrifying combat power after waking up. It was able to fight against a king of a fallen civilization polluted by the stars, and even defeat him.

I was also taking advantage of it. When the machine soul was exhausted, I used Damocles's nail to attack his almost scrapped skeleton, and only then did I successfully subdue the machine soul inside. "

Xia Xiu paused and continued:

"I remember that the skeleton was quite corroded, especially the core part. It was a miracle to restore and strengthen it. When fighting Green Day - Prometheus, he looked like he was reborn."

Alex finally came back to his senses after hearing these words.

He raised his head slightly, and his sharp eyes swept towards Xia Xiu again, his expression showing a hint of sophisticated indifference and his usual rigor.

He chuckled, his tone mixed with pride and unquestionable authority:

"Do you think this is just an ordinary machine? No, kid, it's a work of art. Every inch of the design, every detail, has been adjusted, calculated, and carefully polished by me personally."

He paused for a moment, raised his hand and pointed at the towering body of the Holy Gospel Machine, with a certain eager light flashing in his eyes:
"From the reconstruction of its skeleton to the customization of each piece of armor, every part you can see, touch, or even feel is the result of the hard work of the engineering department."

"The pilot of the Holy Machine of Gospel - you have to show enough respect when flying him."

"Of course I will." Xia Xiu replied. Then, the fourth sword-bearer of the Kingdom of Heaven looked at the Holy Machine of Gospel with a solemn expression and said:
"Light the torches, forge the tools, send down the thunder, and stand like a colossus between the cracks of the world.

The battlefield will be ignited like a flame, the flames will tear apart the dark dome, and the enemy's high walls will collapse with thunder.

Their fear will turn to ashes before us, and I will steer him like a sword in the hand of fate, piercing through all the fog.

We will hold high the fire, and freedom's flame will reignite in the ruins, and its light will never be extinguished until all darkness is gone.

The sound of fire and steel echoes across the sky, and this fire will continue to spread until all shadows are driven away."

General Alex stood nearby, his expression slightly relaxed; although still serious, the approval in his eyes could no longer be concealed.

He always had a high opinion of the Fourth Sword Bearer. Although the Fourth Sword Bearer of Heaven now spoke in a literary manner, like a poet, on the battlefield, he acted like a beast, swift, decisive and ruthless.

Although Hugh Abraham's words were flowery, his actions were ruthless enough, and this was what satisfied him most.

Alex smiled slightly, patted Xia Xiu's shoulder, and raised the corner of his mouth slightly:
"It seems you understand. Yes, the kingdom of heaven needs people like you. If you treat him as a sharp sword, he will cut through all obstacles for you."

Seeing the obvious joy on the general's face, Xia Xiu couldn't help but smile slightly, but he quickly put away his smile and asked about the real purpose of this trip:
"I want to know about the Night Ship and how its maintenance is going now."

When Alex heard this, his expression immediately became serious.

He raised his hand and waved his fingertips in the air, and then two pieces of virtual information were transmitted to Xia Xiu through the genealogy network.

One is detailed intelligence about the night ship, and the other is a real-time video of the night ship storage location.

Xia Xiu's eyes quickly scanned the data, and Alex's low voice came to his ears.

"The process of salvaging it is not as easy as you think."

The commander's voice was filled with a hint of pride and fatigue. He said slowly:

"Our operation to salvage it began in the Chukchi Sea. The water there is freezing cold, and the ice is so thick that it acts as a natural barrier, burying the ship deep under the sea.

The location of the crash was not clear at first, and the detector could only lock onto an approximate area.

The weather was extremely bad, and the entire team built a salvage platform under extreme conditions, initially scanning it with a special subspace probe.

The work progressed very slowly this day, but we could sense the faint energy fluctuations of the Night Ship. Although it had sunk into the deep sea, it was still there. The ship... had not completely sunk."

Alex paused, then turned his gaze to a log on the virtual screen. He continued:

"On the second day, the detector finally locked onto the exact location where the night ship had fallen, which was about 2000 meters below the sea.

Its remains lay quietly sleeping there, like a giant beast, with part of its shell still intact - it was incredible.

Salvaging this thing is no ordinary task and requires extremely delicate operations. We deployed a high-intensity deep-sea grabbing system and carefully tried to extract its core module.

Several technicians tried to establish contact with her remaining systems in order to analyze her final combat data... Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful."

Alex's tone became more serious:
“On the third day, we finally lifted out the main core cabin of the night ship.

When it rose from the water, everyone was shocked—it was still huge and ferocious, but it was already broken and shattered.”

Alex glanced at Xia Xiu's reaction and continued:
"More importantly, the night ship's energy core is still emitting weak pulses. It is still holding on tenaciously, as if it has not completely given up fighting back. At that moment, I felt that the ship was still waiting for something, perhaps an opportunity, or perhaps its mission."

He took a deep breath, as if recalling the cold and pressure at that moment:
"Not long ago, the main hull of the Night Ship was finally successfully salvaged. You have to know that it is very large, and the entire team was shocked by the size of this giant ship. It was once one of the most dangerous enemies, but now it has become a pile of wreckage floating on the sea. The main propulsion system and the bridge area have been completely destroyed, and most areas of the ship are filled with seawater. There are almost no intact parts. We fixed it on the salvage platform and transported it to Fort Essex for further analysis and research."

"Our preliminary analysis concluded that when you block the night ship, it is not complete in itself."

"I watched the replay of your fight with Night Ship in Eden. I can only say that we were very lucky. When you stopped it, this incomplete ship had already been torn apart by the [Sevenfold Veil] of the seventh level of ether. In addition, it had been maintaining the Aurora Curtain that tore through half of the Terran sky, so its combat effectiveness was only 70% of what it was."

Xia Xiu frowned, listening to the commander-in-chief's analysis and looking at the intelligence about the night ship in his hand.

——[Night Ship Messekt Ship Intelligence Report]——

1. Basic Information Code: Night Boat Messekt Boat

Category:Super large battleship/interstellar fortress

size:
Length: 8 km
Width: 3 km
Height: 1.5 km
Weight: 5 million tons
Status: Severely damaged, some cores still active

2. Storage location: Fortress Anchor
Specific location: 40 kilometers underground in Essex Fortress, located at the bottom of the second layer of the Unknown Land
Storage facilities: suspended platform
Model: BSA-002
Energy suppression system: Reality Anchor-V energy suppression field, fully isolating external energy fluctuations and internal residual energy release
Safety Class: Omega-9
Monitoring frequency: Real-time monitoring every hour and uploading to the central control center

Guard configuration: 24-hour shift guard, supervised by elite troops and think tank security system

3. Damaged state

External structure:
Main armor of the ship: The nano-titanium alloy composite armor was completely damaged, about 65% of the armor shell failed, and there were extensive cracks and corrosion marks.

Propulsion system: Four of the six main thrusters were completely scrapped, and the remaining two had less than 10% thrust.

Weapon system: The main weapon, the Hades beam cannon, was completely destroyed. Some parts of the secondary weapon system were not completely ineffective, but needed a comprehensive overhaul.

Internal structure: Ship's Chapel: The main chapel collapsed, the dome was destroyed, the internal ritual area was completely damaged, and the psychotronic device was inoperable.

Energy core: Most of the functions of the etheric space energy core have been lost, but there is still a small amount of unstable energy pulsation, and the danger level is high.

Control Center: The command bridge is completely inoperable, major system modules are damaged, but some data from the black box recording device is still available for extraction.

4. Evaluation
Strategic Level:Ω-4 (Current Level)
The main issues at present:
Aetherial Energy Leakage: Although the Nightship's warp core is damaged, it still maintains a small amount of activity, which may cause energy fluctuations or unstable space phenomena.

Weapon Reaction: Although the remaining weapon system has been scrapped, some components still contain antimatter energy and must be handled with caution.

Data Residue: Night Ship's main system may still retain some enemy data and encrypted intelligence, which may have unknown consequences if cracked.

----------

In the surveillance video, the entrance to [Anchor of the Fortress] was shrouded in deep darkness, with only a few cold lights slowly shining down from the ceiling, illuminating the silver-gray metal walls. Those walls were densely covered with energy conduits, like the blood vessels of a giant beast, slowly flowing with cold light.

A low humming sound filled the air, and the remains of the night ship came into view.

It lies quietly in the center of this steel cave like a deep-sea monster.

The huge hull was fixed on the floating platform, and the weapon system was now only a pile of broken wreckage, with the surface covered with traces of deep-sea corrosion and scars left by battle.

The hull of the night ship has become mottled, and the cracks on the armor spread like a spider web. Through the cracks, you can vaguely see the extinguished energy core inside.

The ship's church is now just a ruin.

The dome of the church collapsed completely, and huge stone statues and altars were scattered among the wreckage. The whole area was shrouded in a dead silence, with only low-frequency energy pulsation sounds occasionally coming from deep within the wreckage, as if the heartbeat of this giant ship was still beating tenaciously.

Hundreds of analysis devices were hung on the surrounding walls, connected to the wreckage of the Night Ship via long cables, carefully detecting the remaining energy fluctuations and system fragments.

Periodically, a blue beam would shoot down from the ceiling, scanning the surface of the Nightship, attempting to decipher her ancient and complex technological structure.

However, no matter how many times it has been scanned, this huge ship still retains its mystery, and many systems have yet to be deciphered.

"Honestly speaking, it's not in a very good condition right now." Alex's voice was low, his tone slow but very weighty.

"First, there is the problem of the main structure - its main hull has been severely damaged. Especially the ship's church area, as the command core and spiritual symbol of the night ship, it almost completely collapsed. The beam weapon of the main bridge directly penetrated the dome of the church, and the entire structure collapsed. Those altars and giant sacrificial devices hanging in the air were completely destroyed, and there is no possibility of repair."

"That place...can only be demolished and completely rebuilt."

The commander took a deep breath in distress and continued:

"Let's talk about the propulsion system. This part has suffered a devastating blow. Four of the six main reactors of the Night Ship have been completely scrapped, and the outer shell of the thruster has lost its structural support and cannot be repaired at all. The main energy core was almost burned when you launched the Sword of Damocles at full power, and the energy circuit was completely destroyed. Now the remaining propulsion system only has 10% of its mobility. Want to make this ship move again? It will take a lot of resources and time, and the supply of materials will be a big problem."

"As for the weapons system, almost all of them were destroyed." Alex shook his head slightly.

Of the 50 beam generators of the Hades Beam Cannon, 42 have been completely paralyzed, and the remaining ones have serious energy leakage and their cooling systems are completely destroyed.

The Styx missile launcher was completely damaged, and surprisingly, there were antimatter warhead equipment and systems inside. However, this thing destroyed itself due to system overload, and it was scrapped before Green Day found it.

Otherwise, those equipment and systems would be enough to cause you trouble in that battle.

The only thing left that is barely intact is the Dimension Cutting Cannon, but it is temporarily unable to start due to insufficient energy supply. Now we can only prioritize assessing whether it can be repaired. "

"In addition, the outer armor of the Night Ship has completely lost its protective function. The nano-titanium alloy composite armor cracked and fell off under your attack, and the remaining parts have all aged beyond repair. If you want to restore the combat effectiveness of this ship, the outer armor must be completely redone."

"And this project...is time-consuming and complicated, and it cannot be completed in a short period of time."

Although Alex's tone was heavy, he still did not give up hope for the night boat. He continued:
"But there is some good news."

“Some of the remaining energy systems are still intact, especially the etheric space engine module. Although it is severely damaged, the energy core is still emitting weak pulses.

We have done some preliminary analysis and believe that this energy can be used as an alternative energy source for other systems, but we need to conduct some in-depth research and repairs first.”

He concluded:
“Overall, the Night Ship is now in a state of extreme damage.

Most of her functions have been lost, and restoring her will require a lot of resources and time. We plan to dismantle her remaining technology modules, obtain usable technologies from them, and then design and build her new form from scratch.

At this stage, our repair focus will be on the energy system, thruster replacement solutions and the restoration of some weapon modules."

The commander-in-chief's voice gradually became lower, and his tone, which was originally full of technical analysis, suddenly paused for a moment.

Then, his expression became more serious than ever before, and his wrinkled and tired eyes suddenly became cold and alert. He took a deep breath, as if he wanted to carefully choose every word that followed.

"Here, I need to tell you something very important, more important than repairing the Night Boat."

Alex's voice was filled with an extremely serious tone, which even changed the atmosphere of the entire dock. He was usually a bit rough, but at this moment he exuded a suppressed and dangerous aura.

Xia Xiu looked at his unprecedented serious expression, and a strong sense of curiosity and vigilance emerged in his heart.

He frowned, obviously guessing the seriousness of the matter, and couldn't help asking:
"whats the matter?"

The commander's deep eyes seemed to penetrate every light and shadow in the dock, and his voice was suppressed and low:
"We found a very important piece of information in the wreckage of the Night Ship... a piece of information that is suspected to be from a giant space fortress built by the 'Void Dragon' or 'Star God'. Those fortresses have a unified name, they are called - Black Stone Fortress."

"Intelligence shows that there are a total of six known Black Stone Fortresses."

(End of this chapter)